250 Turkish Diplomats Seeking Asylum in Germany

Germany’s Funke media group, which includes the Berliner Morgenpost, reported Saturday that more than 600 asylum applicants, comprising 250 persons with Turkish diplomatic passports and 380 with identity papers showing them to be senior Turkish public servants, have sought asylum in Germany since last year’s coup attempt in Turkey.

Last year’s coup attempt, blamed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, was followed by the arrests of 50,000 people in Turkey and 150,000 sackings and suspensions in the military, public and private sectors, DW reported.

The Berliner Morgenpost said it had obtained the figures from Germany’s Interior Ministry, which last month said 196 Turks with diplomatic passports had been granted asylum in Germany.

That count did not include members of Turkey’s military, including NATO attaches, who have also sought asylum.

Following the coup attempt, relations between Germany and Turkey have witnessed a setback, as Ankara believes Berlin was providing asylum for coup plotters, while Berlin has been criticizing the detention of German journalists and human rights activists in Turkey.

Meanwhile, Turkish authorities issued detention warrants on Saturday for 100 former police officers and have so far detained 63 of them, the state-run Anadolu news agency said, as part of a widening crackdown since last year’s failed coup attempt, Reuters reported.

Rights groups and some of Turkey’s western allies have voiced concern about the crackdown, fearing the government is using the coup as a pretext to quash dissent.

The government says only such a purge could neutralize the threat represented by Gulen’s network, which it says deeply infiltrated institutions such as the army, schools and courts.